


nicknames

by ednae



Series: vld drabbles [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Drabble, Light Angst, M/M, Pining Keith (Voltron), keith is in the blade of marmora
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 13:15:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12558180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ednae/pseuds/ednae
Summary: Keith isn't sure when he started to enjoy the weird nicknames Lance gave him.





	nicknames

**Author's Note:**

> reblog [here](https://stellunaria.tumblr.com/post/166902738452/klance-prompt-the-insults-gradually-becoming-more)!

Keith isn’t sure when “mullet” became a common nickname for him, or when he started smiling when he heard it, or when he started coming to expect the little quips throughout the day.

Keith isn’t sure when he started to miss hearing it.

The room around him is cold and empty, completely unlike the atmosphere that permeated the castleship. Even the metal walls lining the castle seem to radiate some kind of warmth.

Keith sighs, pulling his arms closer around himself. He’s so sure that the Blade of Marmora is his calling, where he’s supposed to be, but… it feels different.

Hollow footsteps echo outside his room and Keith looks up to see the door swing open, revealing Kolivan’s emotionless face. Keith stands immediately, ready for whatever mission he’s about to be assigned, but Kolivan just shakes his head.

“You have a call.”

Keith scrunches up his face but follows Kolivan into the bridge, where a massive screen is projecting a familiar face which makes his heart skip a beat.

“Lance!” he says just under his breath, trying his hardest to hide the smile that threatens to break across his face.

On the screen, Lance’s eyes light up as he recognizes Keith. “Hey, mullet.” He says it so softly, so gently, that Keith can feel his heart ache. He wants desperately to run to him, return to the castle and listen to his voice call him weird names over and over until he’s sick of them. At the very least, he wants to end the call and run back into his room before he starts missing them too much again.

“Did you need something?” he asks instead, carefully schooling his features into something he thinks is impassivity.

“Not really,” Lance says, his voice teasing to match the smirk on his face. “I–we just haven’t heard from you in a while, so…”

“I’ve uh, been busy,” Keith says, darting his eyes to the left as he tries to calm the rapid beating of his heart. He can’t let them know he’s been avoiding them.

“We miss you.” and  _of course_  Keith has to look up when Lance says that, because it’s said in the smallest, most vulnerable voice he’s ever heard and Keith can barely breathe when he locks eyes with the screen and he can almost imagine that the ‘we’ was just an ‘I’.

But he forces down his feelings and shrugs, the weight of his feelings pressing down on his shoulders and making every movement so much harder than it should be. “You guys are doing really great out there.”

They don’t need him anyway.

“It’s not the same.”

It sounds almost like a plea, like Lance is begging with him. Keith doesn’t understand.

“Well, yeah, the team’s different now,” he reasons, using logic to get himself far, far away from emotions and feeling and everything else that terrifies him.

There’s a tinny sigh from the screen. “That’s not what I mean, Keith, and you know it.”

It feels weird to hear Lance call him by his name. Keith scrunches up his nose, thinking he’d rather be called ‘mullet’ again.

“When are you coming home?”

Home.

Keith closes his eyes against the prickle of tears that threaten to leak. “I can’t. Not yet.”

“Soon, then,” Lance says, a desperation in his voice Keith wishes he hadn’t heard.

He grits his teeth, a war raging between the part of his mind reminding him of duty and missions and sacrifice and the part of his mind screaming home and family and love.

He hears his heart break, but he lifts the corner of his mouth into a small smile. “Yeah, soon.”


End file.
